Chapter 55
In Beijing during the winter months, the cold is like a knife, piercing the face. Li Cheng, wrapped in a black down jacket, stood on the steps at the hotel entrance, rubbing his pale, cold hands back and forth. He'd been in Beijing for four or five days, but the weather was getting colder by the day. Last night, a northwest wind blew all night, its howling audible even through the hotel's double-glazed windows. This morning, looking out the window at the street below, he saw a thin layer of ice forming on the puddles. A few days ago, the weather forecast said Beijing would snow this Saturday, so he and his friends decided to take advantage of the sunny weather and go for a walk. He couldn't just come here and not see anything.
Li Cheng blew a breath of warm air into his palms. The sun, though bright, offered no real warmth, its rays casting a shadow over his body like a veil. A few elderly men doing morning exercises, wearing thin cotton jackets, leisurely practiced Tai Chi. The steam from the breakfast stall in front wafted up, bringing the aroma of fried dough sticks and freshly steamed buns. Even after breakfast, Li Cheng still felt a pang of craving.
Zhou Yiheng came out of the hotel. He looked around but didn't see Yang Ye. He asked, "Where's the boss?"
Xiao Xiao was still fiddling with the camera she had bought but never used. She followed Zhou Yiheng without even looking up and said, "The boss has something to do today, so he won't be shopping with us."
Zhou Yiheng felt indescribable worry, "Is she alone?"
"Yeah." Xiao Xiao nodded and pressed the button under the camera.
Li Cheng bumped into his arm and asked jokingly, "Why, are you worried about her?"
“No.” Zhou Yi tilted his head sideways.
Li Cheng smiled and said, "Don't worry, she's in Beijing, it's like home."
Go home? Zhou Yiheng was puzzled by the words again. This was the third time he had heard Li Cheng say such things. Even if he was trying to be exaggerated, he wouldn't keep saying it. Just as he was about to ask a question, Xiao Xiao's sudden exclamation interrupted him.
"I told you it would still be usable after a year," Xiao Xiao said excitedly, holding up her camera. She quickly adjusted the lens and pointed it at Zhou Yiheng in front of her through the viewfinder. "Come on, smile."
Zhou Yiheng didn't want to be photographed, so he could only awkwardly walk down two steps and waved his hand to refuse, "I don't want to be photographed, you should take the photo of Professor Li instead."
Xiao Xiao pursed her lips, raised her eyebrows and looked at Li Cheng again, "Professor Li, look at the camera."
The shutter button is about to be pressed.
"Hey, don't." Li Cheng walked awkwardly to the street, fiddling with his hair. "Wait for me to think about it, then take the picture for me when we get to Tiananmen Square."
The two walked forward silently, but in tacit understanding, afraid that if one of them fell behind, Xiao Xiao would catch them and take a picture. Xiao Xiao was walking behind them, and seeing their hurried backs, their ridiculous looks as if they were facing a great enemy, she shook her head helplessly, but couldn't help but smile. She raised her camera and pressed the shutter of the two people's synchronized backs.
The old locust tree at the street corner swayed from side to side in the cold wind, its bare branches tracing chaotic lines against the sky. All the leaves had fallen, leaving only a few shriveled branches. Xiao Xiao looked up, catching sight of the glaring sun. She lowered her camera's focus, using the pure sky as her backdrop. The locust tree stood alone in the lens, but the cat curled up beneath it, about to take a nap, raised its head alertly at the click of a shutter.
The street ahead was still crowded. The vendors, wearing thick cotton jackets with their collars turned up to block the wind, huddled behind their stalls, stamping their feet from time to time to dispel the chill. The iron pans of sugar-roasted chestnuts spun relentlessly, their burnt-sweet aroma tinged with the richness of roasted sweet potatoes, their warm aroma wafting far in the cold wind. Steam rose from the edges of the woks, condensing into a white mist in the passing gust of cold wind. Pedestrians hurried, each with their own agenda.
Walking down Willow-Shaded Street, the bustle slowly receded behind me. The sun shone directly on the gray-tiled roofs of the alley, casting a hazy golden hue on the corners. The peeling paint on the mottled, old walls revealed the dark green bricks beneath, and in the cracks between the bricks, it seemed as if the curled, withered vines of last summer's ivy still clung.
The two stone lions on the gatepost of the courtyard beside me were completely scorched by the sun. The lotus and cloud patterns on their bodies were completely blurred. I wondered how many centuries had passed.
The old man who was selling candied haws at the street corner saw someone coming. He shouted a few words, wrapped his cotton jacket tightly around himself, blew into his palms, and stood beside the straw target full of candied haws.
Xiao Xiao was quick-eyed and quick-handed. She grabbed Zhou Yiheng who was about to fall. The water that had been poured on the ground had turned into a thin layer of ice, and it would be easy to slip if you were not careful.
"Be careful," Xiao Xiao reminded.
Zhou Yiheng saw the thin ice on the ground and thought, "How can it freeze when the sun is so strong?"
Xiao Xiao tapped the thin layer of ice with her toes. "It's cold here day and night, the temperature difference is big, and the air is dry. It's not surprising that it can freeze."
Li Cheng bought three strings of candied haws and gave them to the two of them. "Try it, it's authentic old Beijing candied haws."
Xiao Xiao took a bite. The sweet and sour hawthorns were covered with a thin layer of crispy sugar coating, with a cool sweetness. Eating such a bunch in the cold wind was particularly fresh.
The gates of Prince Gong's Mansion were right before my eyes. Despite winter, a long line formed at the entrance of the bustling alleys. Among them were two girls dressed in distinctively vibrant Manchu costumes, their hair styled in two buns. With the palace as their backdrop, they struck various dignified poses.
“I heard that this used to be Heshen’s residence.” Zhou Yiheng raised his head, and the hot air he exhaled turned into white mist, with the three characters “Prince Gong’s Mansion” on it emitting a cool tone in the winter sun.
The blue brick and gray tiled gate looked like any other old house. The vermilion doorframe bore a few marks of weathering, likely from repairs. Although the cracks were numerous, each one was shallow. While Li Cheng was at the ticket window, Zhou Yi stood there, stamping his slightly frozen feet. He looked down and saw a dent in the middle of the doorframe.
"What are you looking at?" Li Cheng came back with the ticket and saw that he was motionless.
Xiao Xiao adjusted the focus of the camera. She glanced at Zhou Yiheng and answered for him, "Look at the door frame."
"What's so good about the door frame?" Li Cheng didn't understand, and patted his shoulder with a smile, "Let's go, the real good stuff is inside."
Walking through the gate, he saw winding corridors connecting the layers of courtyards. Looking out from the patio, he could see many stone beasts of various shapes squatting on the corners of the eaves. Compared with the carved window lattices that were somewhat covered with dust and this exquisite courtyard, what first caught his attention were the pillars next to them that had faded their bright red color.
The pillar cast a deep shadow on the corridor. Zhou Yiheng gestured with his hand and asked in amazement, "What kind of wood is this? It's so thick?"
"Golden nanmu." Li Cheng turned around and saw several pillars in the corridor next to him. He walked over and raised his hand to gently touch the pillar surface. The fine golden wood grain was faintly visible in the sunlight. "Heshen spent a lot of effort to find these pillars. A piece of golden nanmu was worth a thousand gold at that time. Such thick pillars had to be found in the deep mountains and old forests."
Xiao Xiao held up her camera, scanning the window frames, the eaves, even the occasional brick on the ground. As she composed her shot, she said, "When Emperor Jiaqing raided Heshen's house, they found an estimated 800 million taels of silver alone, not to mention the gold, silver, and jewelry—enough to sustain the entire Qing Dynasty for years."
Zhou Yiheng was looking up at the painted decorations on the beams. When he heard this, he turned his head sharply, almost twisting his neck. He stared at Xiao Xiao with wide eyes and asked in disbelief, "How much? Eight hundred million taels, how much is that?"
"A number you'll never imagine," Xiao Xiao put down the camera, his tone teasing, "Let's put it this way, if all this money were piled up, it would probably crush you to death."
Li Cheng sat down at the resting place beside the pillars, and drank the mineral water in his hand slowly. He smiled and said, "Now you know what it means to be rich enough to rival a country. At Heshen's time, even the emperor was probably not as wealthy as him. Just the things in this yard, just dismantling a piece of wood or moving a piece of stone, would have been enough for an ordinary family to eat for a lifetime."
Xiao Xiao smacked his lips. "That's strange. There's a saying that Heshen fell and Jiaqing ate his fill. This isn't about being full, it's about being stuffed to death."
She paused, then added, "But no matter how rich you are, your house will still be confiscated in the end."
Li Cheng shrugged his shoulders and stood up. "If you are too greedy, you will end up with nothing. Hey, how did you take the photo?"
"Almost," Xiao Xiao replied.
They walked along the path through several courtyards stained with vermilion lacquer until they reached the back garden. In the dead of winter, most of the vegetation in the garden had withered, though a few scattered leaves still clung stubbornly to branches. Among the rockery, the gray-brown Taihu stones seemed even colder and harder. In front, the bluestone pond was frozen over, cracked ice floating on the surface. Xiao Xiao squatted by the pond, his camera pointed at the water. The cracked ice, the calm surface, and the faded hexagonal pavilion in the distance formed a unique picture.
"What is that?" She stood up and turned behind her, and saw the hexagonal pavilion that she had just included in the picture.
Li Chengshun looked in the direction of her finger, "Yaoyue Pavilion"
"Yaoyueting" Xiao Xiao repeated softly while looking at the photo she had just taken in her camera, "What a literary name!"
"I raise my cup to invite the bright moon, and my shadow and I become three," Li Cheng said. "The moonlight shines in through the window and falls right on the drinking table, hence the name 'Yaoyue Pavilion'."
He took Xiao Xiao a few steps west, pointed in the direction of the pavilion and continued, "Actually, the best place to view the pavilion is here. The moon rises from that side, and its shadow can be fully reflected in the pond."
Zhou Yiheng followed behind the two of them. He seemed to notice something and pointed at one of the stones at the bottom of the rockery and asked, "There are words on this stone?"
Li Cheng walked over and took a look. "This is the mark left by the craftsmen back then. After each stone was transported from Taihu Lake, it was numbered and recorded. Heshen required that every stone in the rockery must be placed in the original position, not even an inch off."
"It's just a rockery, why is it so particular about it?" Xiao Xiao complained.
"When you have money, there are more rules," Li Cheng chuckled.
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